Steve: Hello and welcome to another community spotlight, I’m here with Luigi Ammirato of Café Gelato. Hello Luigi.

Luigi: Hello, how are you?

Steve: Very good. Yourself?

Luigi: Very good, thank you.

Steve: So where do you hail from?

Luigi: I originally come from Brooklyn, New York, moved to Florida maybe almost 9 years now, been with the café for 7. Café Gelato is on Price and Sumter inNorthPort. We do breakfast, lunch and dinner, specializing in Italian cuisine.

Steve: Is it just yourself, or is family involved?

Luigi: It is a family operated business. My wife, Linda, is a key part of the business, she takes care of the important stuff… money. And my daughter, Arianna, also is involved in the business. She is the pastry chef, does all the pastries. And we make our own gelato also.

Steve: So the gelato and everything is made in-house?

Luigi: Yes, everything is in-house.

Steve: Pastries as well?

Luigi: Pastries as well, and ??? (couldn’t understand other specialty – located at :59 seconds)

Steve: How long have you been inNorthPort?

Luigi: Nine years and we started our seventh year in the Café.

Steve: What’s unique about Café Gelato?

Luigi: What’s unique about Café Gelato is the atmosphere; it is definitely coming home to eat dinner. You’re coming home to eat lunch. It is very family oriented and not uptight at all. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere and we enjoy serving people, which is what we do.

Steve: You have something a little bit bigger than the café…

Luigi: A little bit bigger than the café is Ernesto and Luigi’s Pamodoro Sauce. This came about a year ago, we began selling it locally and are doing very, very well. Our goal is to take it out of the Café and into the market, first inFlorida and then to the entire country.

Steve: That’s really big. Retail, how much does one of these cost?

Luigi: It is a 24 oz jar of pasta sauce and it retails for $5.99.

Steve: Very good. I understand you are working with charities as well?

Luigi: Yes, we like to deal with churches or anybody else who does fund raisers. What we do is donate our sauce to the fund raiser. A lot of churches and other charities do dinners, so the sauce is Ernesto and Luigi’s Pamodoro Sauce.

Steve: Great. If someone were to call for a reservation, the phone number is…

Luigi: 941-423-9575

Steve: In closing, we have a bonus question. I have a deck of cards, let me mix them up for you. Draw a card and hand it to me. Your question is: If they made a movie about your life, who would play the lead role as you?

Luigi: Robert De Niro, definitely!

Steve: Alright. Thank you Luigi

Luigi: Thank you very much.

Steve: It’s been another Community Spotlight with Luigi Ammirato ofCafé Gelato and I am your host Steve with Burnett Painting encouraging you to support your local community businesses!